Final Parking Space: 1979 Porsche 928

Nearly 30 installments into this series and no Porsches yet? We'll fix that today, and not with one of the 914s, 924s, 944s, or Boxsters that are reasonably easy to find in American car graveyards today. Today's candidate is an early example of the powerful and luxurious 928 grand tourer, found recently in a self-service yard in Carson City, Nevada.

Originally intended as a replacement for the 911, the 928 had a conventional, rear-wheel-drive layout with a water-cooled engine in the front, an opulent interior, and advanced engineering throughout.

The price tag was impressive, giving its owners instant bragging rights at the country club or disco. For a new 1979 Porsche 928, MSRP was $29,775, or about $137,883 in 2024 dollars.

The 928 wasn't the most expensive new Porsche that year (the terrifyingly quick 930 Carrera Turbo cost $38,500, though total production of that not-so-civilized beast didn't even crack 2000 units for 1979), but it surpassed the cost of a new BMW 633CSi by several grand. The 1979 Mercedes-Benz 450 SL listed at $30,729, and the Porsche likely took a big slice out of sales for that model.

The 928 was much faster than the relatively staid 450 SLC, with its 4.5-liter SOHC V-8 generating 219 horsepower and 254 pound-feet. The Benz made do with just 180 horsepower from its 4.5 V-8, and it scaled in at 3650 pounds versus the 928's curb weight of 3144 pounds.

An American 928 buyer in 1979 had to choose between a five-speed manual or three-speed automatic transmission, with the two-pedal version available at no extra cost. This car has the automatic (like all the other 928s I've found during my junkyard travels).

These cars are complex and difficult to work on, particularly when you are forced to dive into the scary wiring of the breaker panel in the passenger footwell. That's why rough 928s are so cheap and nicely restored ones are so expensive!

However, the 928 can be surprisingly reliable under stress. After working as a wise and fair judge for the 24 Hours of Lemons racing series for the past 16 years, I've observed many dozens of fully depreciated Porsches (mostly 944s but also quite a few 928s, 924s, 914s, and Boxsters) being abused on road courses. Out of all those, the 928 has been by far the least trouble-prone … and it's amazingly quick through the corners for such a heavy brute.

Race reliability isn't very closely related to street reliability, as it turns out, which is seen in the fact that Alfa Romeo Milanos hold together better than Hondas and Toyotas in crapcan racing. When your 928 (or Milano) race car breaks something, though, the repairs tend to be orders of magnitude more difficult than those on the Integra or Celica pitted nearby.

Despite the threatened cancellation of the 911, its intended replacement stayed in production all the way through 1995 and got faster and more expensive as the years went by. The newest 928s you're likely to find at your local Ewe Pullet will be from the middle 1980s, so a 1978-85 car is the best choice if you want a project for which it's not so hard to find junkyard pats. with not-so-hard junkyard parts availability.